Know what the market is paying before you make the offer

It is the research layer under a hiring decision: who holds this role across your peer set, what they are paid, where they came from, and how deep the realistic pool is. Clients use it before opening a search, during location decisions, and when a search has stalled and they want to know why.

A survey gives you averages across broad bands, often a year old. Talent intelligence is built for one question at a time, from live mapping of named organisations, so it reflects what the market looks like this quarter, not last year.

Primary mapping of target organisations, our own mandate and offer data across financial services, and structured conversations with people in the market. We tell you the confidence level attached to each number rather than presenting everything as equally solid.

Yes. It is a standalone service. A number of clients use it purely for workforce planning, location strategy or compensation decisions, with no search attached.

Most start with a published survey, then discover it does not resolve the question they actually have. A survey tells you what a job family pays across a broad market; a hiring decision needs to know what your specific peer set pays for your specific scope in your specific city, this quarter. The practical method is to define the comparator set first, price against live offer and mandate data rather than self-reported ranges, separate fixed from variable and equity, and attach a confidence level to each number instead of presenting all of them as equally solid.

Because a band set from the wrong reference point does not fail visibly. It fails as a search that runs for four months with no explanation, or an offer declined at the last stage, or a hire made at a number that quietly resets your internal parity. Pricing the role before you open it is cheaper than discovering the market's answer through a failed process.

Survey platforms are strong on breadth and weak on recency and specificity, which is the right trade for an annual reward cycle and the wrong one for a live hiring decision. We are the opposite: narrow scope, one question at a time, current data, named comparator organisations. Firms that run both use the survey for structure and a custom benchmark for the roles they are actually hiring. The full comparison is here.

The role definitions you want priced, the comparator organisations you consider your peer set, the city or cities in scope, and your current band if one exists. Scope and fee are agreed before the work starts. All the ways to engage us are here.